French vs Italian - How Similar Are They?!

Hi everyone! If you're currently learning French, visit FrenchPod101 ( bit.ly/frenchpod101 ) - one of the best ways to learn French. For Italian, visit ItalianPod101 ( bit.ly/pod101italian ). For 32 other languages check out my review: langfocus.com/pod101/ I'm an active member on several Pod101 sites, and I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I do! (Full disclosure: if you sign up for a premium account, Langfocus receives a small referral fee. But if I didn't like it, I wouldn't recommend it, and the free account is pretty good on its own!)

As an Italian, I reckon that French has a lot of words that are similar to very old, archaic Italian words For example, "I remember" in French is "Je me suviens", in Italian it is "Mi ricordo" but in poems and up until the 1800s or something, it was also "Mi sovviene".

In france we say that if you wanna speak italian just put a 'i' or an 'a' at the end of words

As a spanish speaker (i'm from Colombia) i consider that it´s easier to learn Italian instead of French, more than anything for the pronunciation, i´m learning Italian and it´s a very beautyful language, i hope in future i can learn and speak french. Greetings for all. I'll be in Italy in a couple of years. God bless you.

Latin brothers 🇮🇹🇫🇷🇪🇸🇵🇹🇷🇴❤️❤️❤️

I am italian, and I can guarantee that if we read a normal french book (not a quantistic theory stuff...) we can understand probably 90 % or even more. While we speak, we don't usually understand each other, as the sounds are different. But it's good to know that we are all sons of Rome.

A lot of French words that don't look similar to their modern Italian counterparts are in fact similar to OLD ITALIAN words, and by old I mean language that was in use until the end of the XIX century. For example, as you pointed out, the verb "to forget" in Italian is "dimenticare" and in French it's "oublier." BUT...the old Italian verb, often used in poetry, is "obliare", which is very similar to the French "oublier." Not to mention that the word "oblio" (oblivion) is still in use in modern Italian. Also, from the same example you made, "magazzino" (similar to the French "magasin") was often used in old Italian in place of "negozio" (shop/store.) You can see a remnant of that in the Italian word "grandi magazzini" (department store.) In modern Italian, "magazzino" means warehouse.

Written Italian is very easy to understand for French speakers. When it comes to SPOKEN Italian, well...thet's a different matter X)

Italian and French culture was always seem like two sides of one coin for me. Love them both. I’m B1 French speaker and I look forward to start Italian as well

It is true in Italian we use the "Lei" in formal situations but, especially in the south, there are still a lot of people using the "Voi". Exactly like in French :)

I am French and I have studied Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. There is no doubt in my mind that Italian is the easiest language to learn for a French speaker. The use of verb tenses is the same in both languages (except to express a future in the past: we use a conditional present in French and a past conditional in Italian). I've also noticed that the use of prepositions (always a problem when learning a language because always very idiomatic) is much more similar in French and Italian than in Spanish (Je suis à Rome, Sono a Roma, Estoy IN Roma). The only reason people tend to think Spanish and Italian are closer than French and Italian is the phonology. It cannot be disputed that Italian and Spanish pronunciation and accentuation are very similar.

I am French and unfortunatly never learned Italian. But living close to the italian border, i was able to understand Italian when they speak slowly... When you speak Occitan language, it's much more easier I should say...

I’m italian and i studied french Once i went to france with my parents who didn’t know french, but in this case there is a great tecnique you can use “Frenchlize” all the word you don’t know and 90% of the times you get it

Italian is by far the easiest foreign language to learn for French people. But it remains a foreign language, and you do have to learn the basics. Only few French people actually speak fluent Italian.

When I was an American college student in Italy, I was almost fluent in Italian. I had studied French for only about six months in high school. So, when I was in France, I usually just converted the Italian word into French by just changing the pronunciation. For example, I would just change treno (train in Italian) to train (train in French). This can sometimes lead to disastrous misunderstandings, though. Let me give you one example: toilet paper in Italian is carta igienica. I was staying in a very inexpensive hotel in Paris that had a common bathroom for each floor. When I arrived, there was some toilet paper on a shelf in my small room. During the course of my stay, I used it all. When I needed more, I approached the French hotelkeeper and asked for more "carte" (changing the pronunciation from the Italian "carta" to the French "carte") hygienique (changing the pronunciation from the Italian "igienica"). Well, I got the igienica to hygienique right, but no so the "carta" to "carte." Turns out, of course, that I was asking for a hygienic map. From that hysterical experience of misunderstanding, I learned that among the Romance languages, what appears to be a cognate may actually have a slightly different meaning like carta and carte. Howard

Oublier in french (forget) also has a connection to italian, we say "oblio" (noun) but it's a litterature word, not used everyday. Also "magazin" (store): we say magazzino to tell a place where you store a lot of stuff. Etc... So the words actually are cousins

I'm french and i think italian is funny because many common words look to very formal or old-fashioned french words. For example : Vergogna ----> vergogne (shame) Genitori ----> géniteurs (parents) Lavoro ----> labeur (work) Goloso ----> goulu (greedy) I love this language so much 😊

I speak Spanish , and I learned Italian very quickly. But French is kicking my butt. I think it's easier for French speakers to learn Spanish or Italian than the opposite.

Je suis italien et je comprends bien le français meme si la prononciation au Nord de la France est trop "celtique". Le pronom formal italien est usuellement "Lei" (Vous en français) mais "Voi" est utilisé aussi particulierement dans le Sud. Le verbe oublier en italien c'est usuellement dimenticare mais aussi "obliare". Beacoup de mots français ont un mot pareil en italien mais poetique Par exemple: "tot" presto en italien mais aussi "tosto" en italien poetique. Souvent, spesso en italian mais aussi "sovente" en italien poetique. Donc, quindi en italien mais aussi "dunque" en italien poetique.

When Mussolini was in charge he strongly encouraged Italians to use "voi" rather than "lei". My grandmother hated everyone who addressed her using "voi", because she hated Mussolini.. but it is true that in some regions, they still use "voi". My father surprisingly used "voi" as kid with his very old professors, thinking that "lei" was not showing enough respect.